Summers W C
Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
Yale J Biol Med. 1994 Jan-Apr;67(1-2):23-32.
A close examination of three examples, smallpox, plague and cholera, suggest that for acute infectious diseases the Chinese viewed the symptomatologies, the causes, and the rational treatments of these illnesses in many ways similar to that of their contemporary Western counterparts. Rather than holding an opposing, clashing or incongruent system of medical thoughts for these common, well-recognized infectious diseases, the Chinese were prepared, by a long tradition of ontological thinking, to be receptive to the adoption, incorporation or modification of Western medical ideas in the late nineteenth century.
对天花、鼠疫和霍乱这三个例子的仔细研究表明，对于急性传染病，中国人在看待这些疾病的症状、病因和合理治疗方法上，在许多方面与同时代的西方同行相似。对于这些常见的、广为人知的传染病，中国人并没有持有与之对立、冲突或不一致的医学思想体系，而是通过长期的本体论思维传统，准备好在19世纪后期接受、吸收或修改西方医学观念。
